Fans’ Section

Vietnam’s deputy prime minister ordered an investigation into allegations of a cryptocurrency scam involving $658 million, the latest report of fraud to hit the lightly regulated market for initial coin offerings.Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue told six ministries to “quickly consider and tackle” the scam, according to a statement on the government’s website that didn’t name the coins involved.

DNT: Scrutinizing the cryptomarket seems to be the main objective of the governments around the world right now.

Deals & Investments

Ripple invested $25 mln of its own cryptocurrency, XRP, into Blockchain Capital Parallel IV LP venture fund, according to a company announcement. The $150 mln fund is managed by Blockchain Capital. The new investment will “provide an opportunity to examine new use cases for the XRP Ledger and Interledger Protocol”, support startups, and focus on the “development of the Blockchain space”.

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Exchanges & Trading Venues

While the focus may be on the U.S. of late, cryptocurrency tax issues are becoming a global problem.India has responded by sending tax notices to crypto traders and investors after a survey found $3.5 billion in transactions may have been performed by citizens over the past 17 months. The country’s income tax department has even gone so far as to raid exchanges over suspicions that their customers were evading taxes.

Long Blockchain. and Longfin two firms whose shares skyrocketed last year after they rebranded as blockchain businesses, are set to be ousted from the Nasdaq Stock Market. Their removal signals the end of a brief era when everyone from soft-drink companies to cigar makers was cashing in on investors’ mania for cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology.

DNT: They didn’t last long…Public records show that Long Blockchain, the beverage company-turned-crypto-firm faced a delisting earlier this year – details here, Other News section.

CySEC-regulated forex broker FXPRIMUS has increased the number of cryptocurrencies ‎available to its client as the company continues its efforts to deepen its ‎involvement in the rapidly growing space. Users can now ‎trade Ripple, Dash, Iota, and Bitcoin Cash alongside the ‎already installed cryptocurrency CFDs.‎

If you thought trading Bitcoin was wild, try figuring out how to pay taxes on it.

Cryptocurrency investors are wrestling with spotty records, tangled blockchain addresses and rudimentary guidelines issued back in the ancient days of 2014. After last year’s boom in values, many people are likely disclosing transactions for the first time, adding to confusion.

With Bitcoin settling in a narrower trading range following its dramatic price collapse, it seems the “HODL” life is no more.At least that’s suggested by data collected by one Reddit.com user who noted the relationship between the number of times the term “HODL” was used in postings on the site and the changes in cryptocurrency market capitalization.

That’s the simple question that lies at the heart of a complex debate happening across major cryptocurrencies, where developers from projects as diverse as ethereum, monero and zcash are up in arms over what to do about the arrival of a new form of hardware that could upend the delicate balance of their distributed communities.

BitPeople

Roger Ver, one of the most outspoken proponents of Bitcoin Cash, the digital token that spun off from Bitcoin in August amid a heated debate in the digital-money community, still holds some of the original cryptocurrency because, well, everyone knows it’s smart to diversify.

Latest Developments & Agreements

Santander has become the first international bank to launch a cross-border payments system based on blockchain, using the new technology with a view to taking on specialist fintechs such as TransferWise. The “One Pay FX” service will become available for the bank’s customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland on Friday.

DNT: The story also informs that Santander executive chairman Ana Botín said the group aims to eventually make it available as a standalone app that could be used by customers at other banks.

The Bank of England, Britain’s Central Bank, published a Proof-of-Concept which analyzes the possibilities of allowing users to share data in a safe and secure network. The bank partnered with blockchain infrastructure provider, Chain, to examine the problem and work on the possible solutions.

Regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a massive crackdown on alleged fraud in the cryptocurrency business that could result in dozens of enforcement actions against companies and individuals in the next year over the sale and promotion of this burgeoning and under-regulated industry.

The Financial Conduct Authority has recently published a note stating they are aware of a growing number of UK firms issuing cryptocurrencies or digital assets associated with initial coin offerings. These vehicles are currently not directly regulated but the FCA, and other policy types, have been monitoring this sector of Fintech for quite some time.

Associations & Federations

A group of 22 European nations has formed a new blockchain partnership aimed to exchange information on the technology. The countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands, signed a declaration establishing the new group, dubbed the European Blockchain Partnership, according to a release from the European Commission, which led the effort.

Analysis

ICOs have raised billions of dollars for startups while attracting criminals and authorities around the globe. Now, the young market may get some help cleaning up from the Big Four consulting firms. The hesitation toward ICOs is in contrast to the way Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, EY and KPMG jumped on the blockchain bandwagon as early as 2012. They quickly scrawled research reports and devoted staff to blockchain technology.

Other news

Energy may be the lifeblood of civilisation but that simply means that as the energy market changes, so does the way we do business. Blockchain is being touted as the solution to almost every problem but, in the energy markets, it might just be the key to transformation.